Cycling is something that I have wanted to do for a very long time and this lockdown gave me an opportunity to get started with it. I began cycling early in the morning with a group of friends, 3-4 days every week. It gave me an early head start on the day, and it made my days longer which means I could get more things done. Along with my workouts, this would add to my fitness regime and help me establish a healthy routine.
Learning outcomes achieved: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth
In this experience my weakness was cycling long distances at a quicker speed, this happened as during the lockdown physical activity was minimum and my stamina had reduced from before. Being aware of it, I was able to improve on it by doing more of this quick sprints while cycling and during my workout, I focused on my cardio a little more. Without knowing my strengths or weaknesses I won’t be able to grow and improve.
LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process
The challenging part about this experience was to wake up early every morning, this was challenging due to the sleeping schedule I had, I slept late which was causing me difficulties in waking up early. When I wanted to go cycling I had to wake up at 6:30, and I couldn’t even delay the timings as at 9 am I had to attend the classes and had to come back by 8:30 to freshen up. I had faced this issue many a time when I used to come early morning to school for football camps I faced this back then too. I overcame this challenge by trying to sleep very early on the days of cycling to get a good amount of sleep that day, it was hard to change my sleep schedule but eventually, I got used to it. After undertaking this challenge I feel that changing my sleep schedule was good for me and my health and also I feel that going cycling gets my day to a productive start. Undertaking new challenges like this helps you improve yourself and grow as a person. During this experience, I improved my time management skills as I had to stick strictly to the schedule and wake up early every morning to go cycling and return on time before the classes. And this skill can really help me in the future where my schedule would possibly more packed then.
LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
During the experience, I organized myself by creating a schedule, which mentioned which day and what time will I go cycling. Usually, I am not a very organized person but here I had to organize myself in order to go cycling without missing out on school. Initially, it was difficult than planning because actually following the schedule is much difficult than just creating it, my sleep schedule made it even more difficult to wake up early morning on the days of cycling.
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
During the time when I was finding waking up difficult, I had to show commitment to my experience and go cycling in order to achieve my goal which was to regain my fitness/ cardio. Also after cycling for a long time sometimes I felt like stopping and giving up but I was persistent and carried on until I reached my destination. According to me, perseverance is harder than commitment, some setbacks might make you want to give up but you shouldn’t do so, this is where perseverance is needed. Perseverance and commitment help you grow and helps you reach your goals in life.
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
Working collaboratively is generally hard for me as sometimes I can get annoyed when someone causes chaos but here I found it very easy to work in collaboration. This was because all of them were my friends and I know them well enough that my friends are focused people and friendly. Working collaboratively really helped here as they motivated me to not give up when I was tired, also they pushed me to do even more than which helped me to improve my stamina more.
To conclude, during this activity the learner profile attributes which I developed were well-balanced and communicator. Well balanced as I created a schedule that balanced out my studies and my physical activity and helped me stick to a time. I also developed a learner profile communicator as we were going in a group I had to communicate constantly. The highlight of the experience was the sense of accomplishment I felt after reaching Dumas after traveling 11 km. This experience was a success as I went on to improve my stamina and sleep schedule which will improve and help my health in the long run. Also, I learned how to be more committed and persistent.
